Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

alyaza ΘΔ

@alyazabirze.bsky.social

one obvious problem with using "average wealth" here: wealth gains are so disproportionately consolidated among the already wealthy that it's borderline farce to call the percentage of that gain which has been experienced by the lower quartiles a real gain of any kind

The second important point is that, within many countries, wealth inequality is not only huge but also increasing. In recent decades, the bottom 90 percent have lost out while the top 10 percent have gained in wealth. As Piketty has shown, the general trend for Europe and North America is that the bottom 50 percent had virtually no wealth until the Second World War, after which they accumulated up to 10 percent until the 1980s, but have since then seen their wealth decline again. Meanwhile, wealth at the top has soared. This is even the case in France, which is generally thought of as one of the more egalitarian countries: the top 1 percent had a 55 percent share of all wealth until the Second World War. This dropped to less than 20 percent at the beginning of the 1980s, only to rise again to about 25 percent in 2020. In the US, which has one of the largest wealth inequalities, nine out of ten inhabitants have seen their share of wealth contract since 1990. Only the top 10 percent have increased their share of wealth, from almost 60 percent in 1990 to almost 69 percent now.

In the thirty years between 1990 and 2020, total wealth in the USA grew from $23.58 trillion to $135.76 trillion—a phenomenal increase of $112.18 trillion. If those gains had been distributed equally, the bottom 50 percent of the population would have seen their wealth increase from $1.72 trillion to $57.81 trillion—but instead they currently hold $4.41 trillion. The top 10 percent, however, saw their wealth increase from $12.86 trillion in 1990 to $92.62 trillion in 2020. Of the $112 trillion wealth increase over the last thirty years, more than two-thirds—$80 trillion—went to the American super-rich. Moreover, these figures look at dollar values without accounting for inflation, and use a definition of wealth that includes consumer durables, such as cars and fridges. Adjusting for inflation and taking consumer durables out of the equation would show us a wealth increase for the top 1 percent from $8.4 trillion in 1989 to $29.5 trillion in 2018, yet a net loss of $900 billion for the bottom 50 percent.

November 9, 2025 at 7:05 PM

alyaza ΘΔ

@alyazabirze.bsky.social

the fight to expand the New York State Socialist Caucus is on folks!! the socialist campaigns of Christian Celeste Tate (AD-54) and Eon Huntley (AD-56) have just been announced

secure.actblue.com/donate/slate...

NYC DSA endorses Eon Huntley for State Assembly District 56 and Christian Celeste Tate for State Assembly District 54

November 6, 2025 at 10:58 PM

alyaza ΘΔ

@alyazabirze.bsky.social

doing some research and it seems like, despite everything, the Your Party factional system is very underdeveloped so far—there are only a few formal factions and all of them i could find have signed onto a minimum unity platform. could have big first mover advantage in a genuinely democratic party

Your Party factions to date: The Democratic Bloc
Democratic Socialists
Eco-Socialist Horizon
Greater Manchester Left Caucus
Organising for Popular Power
Trans Liberation Group
The People’s Front

November 6, 2025 at 7:06 PM

alyaza ΘΔ

@alyazabirze.bsky.social

believe it or not, Dayton, OH will also have a socialist mayor starting next year: Shenise Turner-Sloss (a DSA member as of this year; recommended but not endorsed by her local chapter for what i believe are capacity reasons) has been elected in what appears to be an upset

Dayton DSA: Shenise has been a longtime member and supporter of our chapter. While we have not officially endorsed her as a chapter for mayor 2025, she has been a longtime fighter for the people of Dayton and would continue to be a champion for progressive policy as mayor.

November 5, 2025 at 4:22 PM

alyaza ΘΔ

@alyazabirze.bsky.social

so far across 90 endorsements, DSA has 40 wins (44.44% win rate), which is our best ever in an off-year cycle. currently at +11 net gains too

November 5, 2025 at 3:58 PM

alyaza ΘΔ

@alyazabirze.bsky.social

absolutely hate how predictable the outcome was once they failed to score a run off of this situation

November 2, 2025 at 4:22 AM

alyaza ΘΔ

@alyazabirze.bsky.social

on the broader purpose and hopes of the Website League

i think this excerpt from Radical Abundance, chapter 2, gets at the heart of what the Website League is, to me—at least in a digital context:

Social struggles enable and compose new collectives, new modes of consciousness, and new capacities. We learn practical skills like how to hold a well-attended rally, how to get out the vote among union members, or how to lock-on to fossil fuel infrastructure. We also acquire intangible skills and deepen our political understandings about the need to act collectively to achieve our goals, the necessity of putting the interests of the majority before our own, and how to understand that our actions are part of an ongoing global class struggle. Or, as Marta Harnecker says, ‘realising that there are many of us who are in the same struggle is what makes us strong; it is what radicalises us’.

In her studies of socialist construction projects in Venezuela, Kerala, and Cuba, Harnecker observes that those who participate in certain forms of democratic planning and deliberation are transformed by the experience. Participation thus constructs a new, powerful, collective agent of social transformation. She calls this agent, and the process of building and sustaining it, ‘popular protagonism’. Popular, because it is exercised by the working classes, or the popular classes, in their differentiated unity: industrial workers, service workers, care workers, unwaged workers, peasants, and so on. Protagonism, because through collective action the popular classes become the ‘main characters’ of social transformation. […]"

what we’re doing here is, to be sure, not as deep—or as important—as trying to build a genuinely socialist and participatory economy, but this is still fundamentally an experiment in what is collectively possible from “social media” without the distortion of profit motive; without the “growth at all costs” impulse; without the interference of algorithms or the harvesting of data for profit; without all of the numbers that attempt to define who you are and what your worth is, and sell who you “should be” to maximize your algorithmic effectiveness back to you; and so on. i think that’s very important as the default internet experience continues to shrink into a sea of gated communities and homogeneous slop.

like i wrote in my minifesto, though, what we’re doing here is also an experiment in creating something more than that. i’d like to believe that this vision is not only possible, but something we are now in the process of building and leading by example on:

[we seek] a place where we band together to deliberate, collaborate, and advance shared principles of what this corner of the internet should look like. we want room for everyone to create their own communities, but also want everyone who cannot to still have a meaningful seat at the table. we want a space where everything can complement another’s weaknesses or limitations. but we also want a space in which everyone is allowed to regulate and curate beyond those shared principles—or, if necessary, break away or combine to form something new without having to completely start over. in sum, we want to make a space “where all groups of the society and all cultural identities can express themselves” without being subservient to the hegemonic, reactionary ideology of venture capitalists or an unaccountable, centralized monopoly on power.

i hope that, eventually and like with Cohost, we can all say this space influenced us and challenged what we think is possible in a digital space.

October 31, 2025 at 6:12 PM

alyaza ΘΔ

@alyazabirze.bsky.social

begging LA Dodgers enjoyers to use the accent on Kiké Hernandez’s name (even though it’s officially accent-less because he’s from Puerto Rico) because lmao when they don't

October 30, 2025 at 1:05 AM

alyaza ΘΔ

@alyazabirze.bsky.social

FOLKS: the Website League is officially (re)open for business with our new and improved website!

websiteleague.org

Website League:
Posting, but together

The Website League is a new decentralized social media project, run as a collective by folks like you who want a better place to exist online. It's an active community that you can join today.

October 29, 2025 at 4:13 PM

alyaza ΘΔ

@alyazabirze.bsky.social

Jerry Neal from the Colorado Parks and Wildlife agency with an absolutely immaculate waolve photo here

an extremely scrungly and goofy looking wolf being released into the wild

October 29, 2025 at 12:36 AM

alyaza ΘΔ

@alyazabirze.bsky.social

sometimes you'll read an essay by a communist where the entire thesis basically hinges upon the idea that nobody can ever do sex work voluntarily, and that "prostitution" and "genuinely voluntary sex work, pursued for mutual pleasure" are distinct semantic concepts with no overlap

October 28, 2025 at 7:51 PM

alyaza ΘΔ

@alyazabirze.bsky.social

i can now officially say that tomorrow is Website League relaunch day, folks. be there or be square

Posting, but together

The Website League is a new decentralized social media project, run as a collective by folks like you who want a better place to exist online. It's an active community that you can join today.

October 28, 2025 at 5:36 PM

alyaza ΘΔ

@alyazabirze.bsky.social

decentralization is not synonymous with anarchism nor is centralization mutually exclusive of it, and if you read any theory (or did praxis) at all you would quickly recognize this. see Augustin Souchy's "Collectivizations" and Sam Dolgoff's "The Anarchist Collectives" for example:

THECOLLECTIVIZEDINDUSTRIES—ECONOMIC
STRUCTURE—THEFOODSUPPLYTRADEUNIONALSOHAS
ITS HEROES
“Have you collectivized some of the industries?”
“Somewineandliquorindustries.Weareattemptingtomarketallbeerandvermouthproducts
under a single label. We have also collectivized the factories that produce carbonated beverages—
sodas, seltzer, etc. All of this represents a major step forward with respect to quality and economy
in the costs of production.”
“In what direction do you think the Trade Union should go?”
“From the point of view of the new economic structure that inspires our organization, with
a real sense of anarchosyndicalism. We shall centralize its economy, coordinate the accounting
of all the enterprises, unify its funds and its labels, improve on the quality of its products and
reduce the sales prices. In this work that is currently underway—and at the present time for the
provisioning of our city—we have issued an appeal to the Aragon collectives. Having established
direct contact with them, we have abolished the middlemen.”

T
heSpanishsyndicalists demonstrated that such a system is practical. Libertarian collectivism
preserves and widens freedom, stimulates and encourages initiative, and smooths the way for
progress. A syndicalist collective economy is not state planned or state dominated. Planning is di
rected to satisfy the consumer. The syndicalist collective is for the producer what the consumer’s
cooperative association is for the consumer.
T
hecollectives organized during the Spanish Civil War were workers’ economic associations
without private property. The fact that collective plants were managed by those who worked in
themdidnotmeanthattheseestablishmentsbecametheirprivateproperty.Thecollectivehadno
right to sell or rent all or any part of the collectivised factory or workshop. The rightful custodian
was the CNT, the National Confederation of Workers Associations. But not even the CNT had
the right to do as it pleased. Everything had to be decided and ratified by the workers themselves
through conferences and congresses.

October 28, 2025 at 12:50 AM

alyaza ΘΔ

@alyazabirze.bsky.social

the newsletter is finished. the test deployment is prepared. we have all the information we need. TK on official relaunch, but as things stand it's looking like this week will be the week folks

October 27, 2025 at 7:47 PM

alyaza ΘΔ

@alyazabirze.bsky.social

a recurring theme with The Argument's polling—unsurprisingly—is (1) polling something in a basically useless way but then (2) still not getting the preferred data from said polling, and thus resorting to misrepresenting it to advance a left-punching narrative. it'd be funny if it weren't so sad

a national favorability poll CLEARLY indicating that the plurality response is "Haven't heard enough about Mamdani to say" (44%) versus "Somewhat/very unfavorable" (35%)

October 24, 2025 at 5:34 PM

alyaza ΘΔ

@alyazabirze.bsky.social

i've been saying it more and more this year: ANTI-POPULIST AKTION—i was willing to take a chance on Graham Platner, but it is now abundantly clear that the populist mindset is too strongly comorbid with doing dumb shit and having dumb fuck opinions

October 21, 2025 at 8:55 PM

alyaza ΘΔ

@alyazabirze.bsky.social

Filterworld explains this dynamic best: "Someone [previously] had to care enough to tell me what they liked, and I had to care enough to trust them and give it a fair try."

I must admit that my admiration for this period is driven in part by nostalgia. We all dream of that period of youth when the self is relatively unformed and encounters with art have a staggering power. Teenagers are more open to new experiences, regardless of what technology they use to consume them, and have the tendency and time to indulge obsessions, to become connoisseurs. But I’ve realized that what I appreciated so much about those online interactions is that they were built on person-to-person recommendations, not automated ones. Someone had to care enough to tell me what they liked, and I had to care enough to trust them and give it a fair try. Such cultural recommendations—communicating approval—are social and moral acts. We tell each other that we like things the same way that bees perform dances to pass on the location of a particularly fruitful flower. The very act brings us together.

Recommender systems, then, are a much more abstracted version of this exchange. Within them, our net behaviors are aggregated by an algorithm, then crunched and averaged and spit back out to create templates of consumption that are imposed on other people. In the guise of speeding it up, it actually impedes that organic development of culture and instead prioritizes flatness and sameness, the aesthetics that are the most transmissible across the networks of digital platforms.

October 20, 2025 at 2:47 PM

alyaza ΘΔ

@alyazabirze.bsky.social

being consistent on this would require you to believe that Andrew Cuomo is—and was—more inspiring than Zohran Mamdani for literally the entirety of that mayoral primary (Zohran led a grand total of 2 polls, ever, and never had a lead at any point when using a running average)

October 17, 2025 at 12:04 AM

alyaza ΘΔ

@alyazabirze.bsky.social

i think this says it all really

But consider this: Surveillance pricing also means that wealthy customers pay more for identical goods, while lower-income customers pay less. That means it could achieve redistribution goals typically pursued through government policy. Pharmaceutical companies already do this globally, charging wealthier countries more for identical drugs to make medications accessible in poorer nations. Surveillance pricing could function as a private-sector progressive tax system.

Economists call it “price discrimination,” but it often helps poorer consumers access goods they might otherwise be unable to afford. And unlike government programs, this type of redistribution requires no taxpayer funding. When Amazon’s algorithm charges me more than a college student for the same laptop, it’s effectively running a means-tested subsidy program – funded by consumers.

October 15, 2025 at 2:52 PM

alyaza ΘΔ

@alyazabirze.bsky.social

the second you compare non-religious cultural/voting habits to almost any religious denomination, the second you get your answer here. non-evangelical Christianity basically only looks good grading on a curve with evangelicals on it, and even then that's being pretty generous to most denominations

Protestant denomination two-party vote share in 2020 for Trump, going from the Assemblies of God (78% Trump) to the African Methodist Episcopal Church (6% Trump)

from: https://www.graphsaboutreligion.com/p/how-40-protestant-denominations-voted

Pew Research data showing White evangelical Protestants (85/15 Republican), White non-evangelical Protestants (58/39 Republican), and White Catholics (61/37 Republican), versus non-religion affiliated voters (70/27 Democratic) and Atheists (84/13 Democratic)

October 11, 2025 at 3:59 PM

alyaza ΘΔ

@alyazabirze.bsky.social

it's been a busy few days over on Coordination, the place where we coordinate development and organization stuff for the Website League

a window into Coordination, the self-hosted Zulip-based chat platform for Website League development and organization stuff

October 8, 2025 at 2:53 AM

alyaza ΘΔ

@alyazabirze.bsky.social

Gavin Newsom? No Thank You! i will sooner protest vote than ever vote for this pathetic Kirk-slobbering dweeb who can't even commit to signing popular legislative stuff like this